Referenews

A final decision hasn’t been made, the officials said, adding that Mr. Biden is in the process of conducting interviews. Several other contenders are under discussion for the key economic policy-making role, the officials said, including

Sylvia Mathews Burwell,

who led the Office of Management and Budget and the Health and Human Services Department during the Obama administration. Ms. Burwell has been the president of American University since 2017.

Tapping Ms. Brainard for the NEC would create a vacancy at the Federal Reserve, but Democrats’ control of 51 votes in the Senate would make the confirmation of her successor an easier task than during the first two years of the administration. Some in the White House believe that moving her to the White House is worth the risk of another high-profile Fed confirmation fight, some of the people said, arguing they need a strong NEC chief heading into what they view as a critical year for the U.S. economy.

Ms. Brainard declined to comment through a spokeswoman.

It is unclear when Mr. Biden will make a final decision, but it could be announced in the coming weeks, some of the people familiar with the matter said.

The NEC director serves as the top economic adviser to the president and plays a central role in shaping a range of policy decisions.

Brian Deese,

Mr. Biden’s current NEC director, is planning to step down after more than two years in the position, the people said. He hasn’t set a date for leaving the administration, one of the administration officials said. The Washington Post earlier reported that Ms. Brainard was a serious contender to replace him.

Mr. Deese has been a driving force in negotiations with Capitol Hill on key legislative priorities, and has helped the president navigate high rates of inflation and supply-chain challenges during the first two years of his administration.

Other candidates for the job include:

Bharat Ramamurti,

deputy NEC director, and Gene Sperling, a top adviser to Mr. Biden who twice led the NEC during previous Democratic administrations. Deputy Treasury Secretary

Wally Adeyemo

and Commerce Secretary

Gina Raimondo

have been floated as other possible contenders, but neither of them are said to be pursuing the job, some of the people said.

A Commerce Department spokeswoman said Ms. Raimondo had no plans to leave the department. A Treasury Department spokeswoman declined to comment.

Ms. Brainard has served on the Fed’s board since 2014 and won bipartisan Senate confirmation last May to a four-year term as the central bank’s second-in-command.

Ms. Brainard has played a forceful role shaping monetary policy during her tenure, but she has always had a strong interest in economic policy-making that goes beyond the more narrow regulatory and monetary policy controlled by the central bank. She also has extensive government experience from top roles at the White House and the Treasury Department before that.

It isn’t unusual for Fed officials to leave their jobs to take top posts in the White House.

Ben Bernanke

left the Fed in 2005 to run the White House Council of Economic Advisers, where he developed a good relationship with President

George W. Bush,

who picked him the following year to run the Fed. Treasury Secretary

Janet Yellen

also left the Fed during the Clinton administration to serve as the CEA chairwoman.

At the Fed, Ms. Brainard has been a strong advocate for much of the monetary policy led by Fed Chair

Jerome Powell,

including through 2021 when central bank officials initially argued that inflation was likely to fade without the need for aggressive interest-rate increases. The Fed raised rates aggressively last year to combat inflation that soared to a 40-year high.

More recently, Ms. Brainard has begun laying the groundwork for the Fed to consider stopping interest-rate increases this spring should inflation and wage growth continue to moderate. In a speech last week at the University of Chicago, Ms. Brainard built on earlier remarks that have advocated for slowing down the Fed’s aggressive rate increases by underscoring how interest-rate changes will take time to slow down economic activity and to reduce inflation.

Mr. Biden’s decision could be important for the Fed and not just his White House. Even though the president could replace Ms. Brainard with someone who shares her outlook, her departure from the central bank would leave the institution—on the margins—without a strong intellectual leader of the case for a slightly less aggressive policy path.

In March 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic sparked a global dash for dollars that overwhelmed the ability of many markets to function, Mr. Powell asked Ms. Brainard to join the small circle of senior advisers who help shape major policy decisions at the central bank.

Ms. Brainard consistently opposed various measures to ease financial regulations between 2018 and 2020 as the lone Obama administration appointee on the Fed’s board during the Trump administration. She pulled the Fed her way on some key banking issues, including by blocking a proposal by Trump administration nominees to overhaul rules implementing the Community Reinvestment Act, a 1977 law designed to end racial lending disparities.

Before joining the Fed, Ms. Brainard helped manage the Obama administration’s response to the 2008 financial crisis during four years as the top financial diplomat at the Treasury Department, making her one of the few Democrats intimately involved in responding to the last two economic shocks.

Ms. Brainard served as an adviser to President

Bill Clinton

on international economics in the late 1990s. She also served as a staff economist on the White House Council of Economic Advisers in the George H.W. Bush administration.

The daughter of an American diplomat, Ms. Brainard grew up on both sides of the Iron Curtain in Germany and Poland during the Cold War. She has credited that upbringing with fostering her interest in economics. “I was fascinated by how two countries so close in geography and resources could diverge so sharply simply by being separated by the Iron Curtain,” she said in a 2014 speech in Claremont, Calif.

Ms. Brainard is married to

Kurt Campbell,

who is Mr. Biden’s point person on Asian affairs on the White House National Security Council.

Write to Andrew Restuccia at andrew.restuccia@wsj.com, Ken Thomas at ken.thomas@wsj.com and Nick Timiraos at nick.timiraos@wsj.com